Reality Is Out to Lunch: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"A computer chattered to itself in alarm as it noticed an airlock open and close itself for no apparent reason.

 

 

Sample conditions of a place where reality is out to lunch include [[Alien Geometries]] (constant relation [[Your Head Asplode|between skull volume and its surface]] is a good thing to have) and [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|time dilation]].<ref>Except for Relativity physics. Reality is is perfectly real in this case.</ref> [[Perspective Magic]] is another common trick. A [[Reality Warper]] has this as a superpower. Related to [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place]], only the place in question isn't necessarily used for travel purposes. See also [[Eldritch Location]], where this often happens, and [[World of Chaos]] for when the effect is so widespread it makes up the whole of existence. May result in someone [[Giving Up on Logic]]. Fairly common, or at least not out of the ordinary, in [[Surreal Horror]].

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* If upset, the eponymous character of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' can unwittingly create "Closed Space" which looks pretty much like copies of parts of the real world, minus people plus large scary rampaging blue [[Kaiju]]-like things. Within said Closed Space, espers can also generate energy fields they can't otherwise generate in the real world. Also, she can also unknowingly [[Reality Warper|warp some aspects of the real world]] (like making pigeons into doves, allowing cats to talk, giving people eyebeams, ''or literally turning someone into Santa Claus'') while not affecting the rest of the world at large. Actions by the rest of the main cast usually revert such changes relatively quickly.

** Although it's suggested by the other characters that, if she were made aware of her powers, she would be [[Physical God|nigh-omnipotent]] and capable of controlling all of reality at will. Which would almost inevitably end in [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. The real kicker? It's been suggested ''this already happened once.''

* In the void between worlds between Earth and the Digital World in ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' the cast are wandering the dark void wondering what's going on. Then Jeri mentions that "she thinks that way is 'down'". Renamon: ....oh dear. Gravity comes into being and they begin falling.

* Several settings in ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' are like this {{spoiler|since they were created by [[Rewriting Reality|Drosselmeyer]]}}. There's a lake that can become solid and then turn into water again, another that functions like water but allows characters to breathe, and a separate reality that includes talking puppets and a crank to turn back time.

 

 

* ''[[The Invisibles]]'' arc "Entropy in the UK" has the Conspiracy summoning a [[Eldritch Abomination|big-name horror]] into their base. As a result, the laws of physics go completely random and insufficiently protected characters start developing skin cancer. One psychic character describes trying to read the base as "feel[ing] like someone threw up in my head."

* In the [[Marvel Universe]], this is the consequence of trying to use the Reality Gem without the other four Infinity Gems (Time, Space, Soul, Power) there to act as control rods.

* In [[PS238]], time spent in one of these zones results in Cecil getting wings and a number of [[Eldritch Abomination]] attributes.

* [[Reality Warper]] supervillain Proteus from [[X-Men]] comics, particularly "The Day Reality Went Wild". His powers are especially traumatizing for Wolverine, whose heightened senses give him a greater awareness of reality, and a consequently greater awareness of reality being raped.

* In [[Captain Britain]], the [[Reality Warper|reality-warping]] Mad Jim Jaspers' brief but nightmarish rule over Britain resulted in this; had the Fury not stopped him, it would have spread not only to the rest of the world, but to the entire multiverse.

* In ''Harry Kipling (Deceased)'', the gods chucked out the laws of physics because they aren't mythic enough.

 

== Fan Works ==

* ''[[Discworld]].'' Reality is so malleable in that setting that things like this are not entirely out of the ordinary. It's actually stated at some point that the trick to breaking physical laws is to get this to happen and then get away with it before the universe remembers that what you're doing is impossible.

** Also, in areas devastated by past magic wars, random distortions are a serious threat. Such areas are known as "unreal estate".

** From the magical battle during ''Sourcery'', "It looked like a piano sounds after being dropped down a well. It tasted yellow, and felt paisley. It smelled like a total eclipse of the moon. Of course, closer to the tower it got ''really'' weird."

** Perhaps especially notable is how Unseen University uses Hex; knowing that many impossible things are in fact possible ''until'' reality notices, they can use a half Magitech, half [[Bamboo Technology]] computer to violate the laws of physics in very many ''extremely'' similar but distinct ways, very quickly, too quickly for the universe itself to adjust!

* [[Xanth]]'s Region Of Madness. Closer to Wackyland than The Wyld.

* The Nevernever of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' is a spiritual realm where the flow of time is subject to the whims of its Queens, where gunpowder or fire stops working when in the wrong place, and where dying in the wrong place can cause global warming or a fresh ice age. It's suggesting that further realms are even less based in normal reality.

* In [[Roger Zelazny]]'s ''The Changing Land'', the land around Castle Timeless is currently inhabited by the "mad" demi-god Tualua. Tualua is undergoing one of the "changes" common to his kind, which in this case causes the land surrounding the castle to be subject to all sorts of chaotic, unpredictable, and often-deadly effects.

* [[Jack Vance]]'s short story "The Men Return" takes place [[After the End]], when the solar system has entered a vast "pocket of non-causality" and the law of cause and effect has crumbled into chaos. A few sane survivors struggle to stay alive in a world where the landscape and circumstances shift randomly around them like a Salvidor Dali painting, while the lunatics have adapted to the madness and thrive in it. By the end of the story, the Earth's emerged into normal space again, the insane behavior that'd kept the madmen alive is now useless and self-destructive, and the sane men begin to violently retake the world.

* in the [[Black Company]] novels, there's an area where this is caused by a God brought in from another world. a bunch of stuff got dragged with it and made the best of the situation. There are giant airborne whales, talking and moving menhirs, and lightning-shooting flying stingrays.

* In ''[[Storm Thief]]'' by [[Chris Wooding]], the "horror" version of this is played with: probability storms happen all the time, at random, with no warning, and can change ''anything''. Of the novel's two main characters, Moa is an orphan because of this and Rail is forced to wear respirator constantly. The city also has barely any technology because the storms turned off all the power and it was hundreds of years before they turned it back on again. The kicker? {{spoiler|This was done ''on purpose'' to keep the city from stagnating into a cruel dictatorship. It does anyway.}}

* Happens in ''[[Into the Looking Glass|Claws that Catch]]'', when the ''Vorpal Blade'''s chaos drive interacted with the chaos-based shield of a giant derelict, producing a bizarre effect the crew dubbed "the [[Anime]] zone". Mostly it involved massive [[Flanderization]] of the appearance of the ship and crew, as well as the crew's personalities.

* This has started happening in All-World, the main setting of ''[[The Dark Tower]]'', due to the Beams that support the titular tower failing. Resulting in time and space beginning to 'drift', what was east one morning my be north-east the next, the passage of time becoming uncertain etc..., and while it's All-World that is the most effected, due to it being the closest to the Tower, as the strength of the Beams continues to decay this would spread to every world.

 

== Music ==

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* The Wyld from ''[[Exalted]]''. Those who live too close to it develop mutations, some of the things that exist within literally cannot exist in reality, and travel time is measured not in terms of distance but by [[Theory of Narrative Causality|where you are in the story]]. Oh, and if that weren't enough, [[The Fair Folk]] live there. Some other examples of Wyldlife are 'grass with fangs', and the delicious yet nutritious 'Rockodile'.

*** In the Eye of Terror, Mass * Velocity = Rubber Chickens. The Eye of Terror is just the most prominent example. The Warp in general is like this, as are Daemon Worlds, warpstorms, etc.

** more like mass * velocity = mutations

** The Abyss from ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'' is pretty much established as "anti-reality." No one actually goes in there, [[Cosmic Horror|but plenty of things come]] ''[[Cosmic Horror|out]]'' [[Cosmic Horror|of there]]... Well, OK, a few go in, it's just that they don't come ''out''. Unless they happen to be Archmages, and even then, they can only go in for a short while.

** The Abyss also gives rise to the Nemesis Continuum, a set of warped physical laws that create a zone where things work ''wrong''. If you enter a Nemesis Continuum area wearing something green, it'll immediately hit 100 celsius and give you horrible burns.

** Another screwy realm is the [[Hell|Pandemonium]] where the Mages of Mind and Space awaken. This is where [[Your Mind Makes It Real]] is the guy in the cubicle next door, who is doing reality's work while reality is out to lunch.

* Most of the Umbra in the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' gets pretty close. Even areas under the hard control of the [[Powers That Be|Weaver]], the spirit of stasis, tend to have unusual flow of time and sentient spirits of data running around. Where the Wyld or Wyrm rule, even simple things like waking up the same shape you started as is a rarity.

* The interior of Hundan, the Titan of Chaos, in ''[[Scion]]'' cannot be mapped in any reasonable manner. To do so would be to define it, and Hundan ''cannot'' be defined. This renders Hundan impossible to [[Sealed Evil in a Can|seal away]], but thankfully, it's so chaotic that it cannot focus long enough to act. And then the other Titans got out and asked Hundan for assistance...

** Limbo, the realm of pure Chaos, is rather like this. Wild Magic is the rule there, rather than the exception, and the whole place basically exists in an endless state of creation, with new things coming to existence all the time.

* The ''Torg'' RPG featured an invasion of Core Earth by other realities (cosms), in which those alternate realities' laws of nature were superimposed on the invaded/supplanted territories. This means you could have fantasy, super-science, ''mad'' science, horror, pulp-adventure, and cyberpunk tropes all mixing it up in the same game-setting.

 

* ''[[Infinite Space]]'' has fluctuation sectors. Apparently, it can be stabilized using the [[Black Box|Epitaphs]] {{spoiler|or the power of [[Artificial Human|Observers]] (and possibly Trackers)}}.

* The nameless town in which ''[[Pathologic]]'' takes place [[World Gone Mad|isn't very sane]] to begin with, and [[It Got Worse|it only gets worse]].

* [[Silent Hill]] is famous for this, particularly when the [[Dark World|Otherworld]] invades.

 

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

{{quote|'''Edd:''' Don't look now, gentlemen, but there's a cow hovering just overhead.}}

* Wackyland in the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' cartoons. Like Wonderland, but with more dodos.

** A [[Running Gag]] in oh-so-many ''[[Looney Tunes]]'': characters refuse to fall, defying the Law of Gravity.

{{quote|"Well, you see, [[It Runs on Nonsensoleum|I never studied Law]]!"}}

** Similarly in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Where No One Has Gone Before", the Enterprise is transported to the Outer Rim of the universe, where reality breaks down and starts making crew members' memories real.

*** And then there's also the Delphic Expanse in ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]''. In some parts of it, the known laws of physics did not seem to apply. Once a Klingon ship emerged from the expanse with its entire crew anatomically inverted, but still alive.

** In particle physics reactions, there can exist "virtual" particles which have invariant mass much different than what would be that particle's usual mass (if that particle weren't extant only as part of a reaction). Example: An electron and an antielectron (positron) annihilate, to form a single photon that has mass equal to the total center-of-mass energy of the two electrons, then that photon decays after a time to an electron and a positron with the same center-of-mass energies as the originals. A free photon would normally have zero mass and not decay, but here the virtual photon has mass, but decays - almost literally it is "Reality is Out to Lunch," and when reality "catches up" with the improperly-massed particle, it decays. Or at least that's one way to think about it. Of course, this is a "cartoon" picture, since in real life it's impossible to "see" the virtual particles, so it's hard to say whether they "exist" or not.

* A lot of higher mathematics invokes this trope, playing around with imaginary numbers, hypothetical spatial dimensions, and conceptual permutations of infinity.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Absurdity Ascendant]]

[[Category:Reality Is Out to Lunch]]